One man\’s year-long journey through the world of baseball

TaiwanBaseball is reporting another 6-figure signing out of the East China Sea. This time, it’s the Cincinnati Reds making their first foray into the Taiwanese market, inking 19-year-old LHP Tzu-Kai Chiu to a signing bonus somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000. Chiu’s apparently a pretty soft tosser, so if the price the TT’s hearing is accurate, this might be something of a statement signing on the Reds’ part, announcing their intentions to compete for top Taiwanese talent in the future.

I meant to do something of a writeup on the Caribbean Series a bit closer to the end of it, but I was a bit overwhelmed by the beauty of Okinawa, the spectacle of Okinawan baseball, and the bevy of friends from different parts of my life that descended on this small island in the short time I’ve been here.

During the latter days of the series, however, I started thinking about how far baseball is along in its path towards true globalization. Looking over rosters, the answer came back loud and clear: not very.

Teams are pumping more and more resources into Nicaragua, Columbia, and Panama. Major league baseball’s spending millions promoting the game in China and South Africa. There’s talk of MLB funding the rebirth of the Australian Professional League, which would do a lot to alleviate the huge hit Australian baseball is taking since the IOC decided to dump baseball from the list of events at the summer Olympics (speed walking, however, is still an Olympic event). Israel’s starting up a professional league. The Caribbean Series is considering expanding to include the Nicaraguan and Columbian winter leagues (a bad idea unless the invitation also goes out to Cuba). The MLB European Academy is netting intriguing young talent, and the Seattle Mariners even signed the first kid from El Salvador this offseason. Taiwanese teenagers choose to sign with major league clubs instead of enter the Japanese League’s draft with ever-increasing regularity, and speaking of Japanese baseball, the NPB and Major League Baseball are going to have to seriously re-work the system of player exchange in the next couple of years, as neither side can be particularly happy with the posting system at this point.

There’s growth on the horizon.

However, there’s still a lot of growing left to do.

The top prospects in baseball not acquired through the draft still come from two places: the DR, and Venezuela. Even countries that have produced a handful of quality major leaguers in the past 10-15 years are not showing much of a sign that their output is growing in any meaningful way.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at the top prospects from countries where the draft does not take place not named the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

If anyone feels I’ve missed anybody, feel free to chime in. Combing for prospects is a rather difficult process, so I’m bound to leave some people out.

If baseball is growing in areas in Latin America outside of the traditional power houses, the current level of minor league talent from those countries is not showing it. In some cases, there are extenuating circumstances. For instance, it’s really difficult to scout Columbia effectively, what with it occupying a prominent spot on the state department’s travel warning list.

However, outside of Latin America, the sport is clearly growing. Australia’s hit a bit of a low spot since its winter league went broke in the late-90s, but with the possibility of the league’s rebirth, there’s potential to get another strong wave of Australian prospects starting in a couple of years.

The real signs of growth are in Europe and Taiwan. It’s pretty clear that we can attribute the growth of these countries’ minor league representation to money pumped in by major league baseball in the former case, and by individual teams in the latter instance. There are a handful of Nederlanders in the minors who are potential major leaguers, along with a couple of Italian prospects. In the next year, I fully expect to see players from the Czech Republic and South Africa (South Africa’s best young players participate in the MLB European Academy) begin to show up.

Major League Baseball clearly wants to grow the game’s international audience, and with good reason. There are huge markets out there. To put a cynical outlook on it, there are countries out there where baseball can find kids who do not have access to quality agents and have no clear idea of what their talent is worth.

Of course, there’s also the issue of Cuban Baseball potentially opening up its doors to American scouts in the next few years after Castro kicks the bucket, which will completely overhaul the makeup of the minor leagues first, and then eventually the majors, and baseball will come out stronger than ever because of it.

Money to be made + money to be saved = significant motivation to go out and expand the game. It will be interesting to watch MLB’s attempt to become a truly global league unfold over the next decade or two.

Greetings from Okinawa! I haven’t really gotten used to the fact that I’m half a world away from where I was about 72 hours ago yet, so I’ll probably be putting that ! in whenever I mention the name of the Japanese prefecture for awhile. Okinawa! It’s tough to say without getting excited.

This one slid under my radar, which is why we’re so fortunate to have guys like the Taiwanese Terror combing news feeds and milking inside connections to bring us the latest news from the Pacific Rim. The Colorado Rockies have inked a 6’4″ Taiwanese pitcher named Sheng-An Kuo, who’s apparently a former high school teammate of current maddeningly talented but underperforming Rockies’ prospect Ching-Lung Lo. According to the TT, Kuo received a bonus somewhere between $150-200k.

As a Mariners fan it pains me to admit it, but the Rockies probably have the best overall international scouting department in the majors. Well, at least right now. The Ms cast a wider net more effectively, leaving no stone unturned by scouting places like the Netherlands, Italy, South Africa, and apparently El Salvador, but the Rockies cast a relatively wide net while boasting a VERY successful Latin American program (without spending huge money) to give them some of the best depth in international talent in the minors.

I want to say the track record for highly touted Taiwanese pitchers the last few years isn’t that great, and their injury rate tends to be pretty high, but not paying all that close attention to the couple dozen Taiwanese players in the minors, don’t hold me to it if it turns out I don’t know what I’m talking about.

About

I’m currently working on a year-long research project on the globalization of baseball, courtesy of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. Over the next 12 months, my project will take me to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Australia, Puerto Rico, Okinawa, and Venezuela, and I decided to set up this blog to share some of the things I pick up along the way.